In the span of 26 days, the 2017 San Diego County Fair welcomed 1,565,933 visitors, sold nearly 7,000 doughnut-fried-chicken-ice-cream sandwiches and saw around 2,500 daredevils bungee jump.
The Wild West-themed fair wrapped up Tuesday. Just before midnight, fair organizers rounded up the final tallies of how the annual event shaped up. Turns out, this year brought the second-largest attendance in the history of the San Diego County Fair; the day with the most attendees was this past Sunday, with 93,874 guests walking through those gates.
Other interesting numbers from this season at the Del Mar Fairgrounds:
- Chicken Charlie – the authority on unique, fried fair food – sold close to 7,000 of its Krispy Kreme Ice Cream Chicken Sandwiches and 30,000 Peanut Butter Meatballs
- For its popular fried potato treats, vendor Australian Battered Potatoes went through 14,000 pounds of spuds, 8,400 pints of oil, 240 gallons of ranch dressing, 60 cases of cheese sauce, 200 pounds of bacon, and 150 pounds of sour cream.
- Bacon-a-Fair, THE place to eat bacon at the San Diego County Fair used more than 30,000 pounds of bacon this season for its dishes, including 350 pounds for its bacon-wrapped asparagus.
- Fairgoers devoured 18,000 pounds of Giant Big Ribs from Biggie’s Meat Market.
- Vendor Corn Star grilled 48,000 ears of corn.
- Vendor Dixie’s Donuts fried more than 281,000 mini doughnuts.
- Seventy-six kegs of Blood Orange IPA from Hess Brewery – a craft beer brewed specifically for the San Diego County Fair – were consumed.
- The fair’s annual toy drive collected more than 11,000 stuffed animals for local children – shattering the all-time record.
- About 2,500 people braved the Bungee Plunge this year; the oldest jumper was 71, while the youngest was 8 years old. About 50 people got cold feet at the top.
- The top 10 fair rides this season were: Crazy Mouse, The Big Wheel, G-Force, Magnum, Sky Flyer, Olympic Bobs, Fast Track Slide, Alien Abduction, Rave Wave and Infield Carousel.
- At the daily Coco’s Pie-Eating Contest, 240 pies – or 1,072 slices of pie – were eaten.
- In a Bubble Gum Blowing Contest, 207 pieces of bubble gum were consumed.
- Visitors took 2,864 photos with the fair mascot this year, Diego the Pinto Pony; 45 kids cried upon seeing the mascot.
- The fair’s 20-minute Fourth of July fireworks show includes 2,394 aerial shots.
- The fair’s 68th annual Livestock Auction raised $528,1454 raised for 4-H and FFA youth, by selling 121 hogs, 74 lambs, 46 cattle, and 53 goats.
- The fair’s Lost & Found collected 147 lost credit cards, 154 lost cellphones (with all but 26 returned as of Wednesday), 115 lost keys. Check out some of the weirder things that wound up at the fair's Lost & Found here.
The San Diego County Fair ran from June 2 through July 4. The fair continues to be the largest annual event in San Diego County and one of the top 10 fairs in the U.S. and Canada, drawing about 1.6 million visitors every summer.
